The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1887-03-23
AFTER NIGHT THE DAWN.

The door of the country scbool.room
closed behind the last noisy pupil. and
the young teacher was alone. She
bowed her head YEARLY upon her hand
and looked around the bare. comfortless
room, with its hard benches. curtajnless
windows, and rusty, broken stove. with
a shudder of disgust
There were days-and this had been
one--when every + Der of her sensitive
being shrank from association with tbe
motley crowd of urchins, and from con.
tact with the dirty, dog scared books
sue grlmy desks, and dingy walls; but
she never allowed these feelinps TO in
huence her; the duties of her position
were consclentiously performed. the
more SO, perhaps, because they were so
disagreeable.
She had dismissed school an bopr
carrier to-day, ostensibly to enable her to
correct the compositions handed in for
tomorrow s reading; really because she
nau seen Roy Carlton drive by, and
knew that he would return to ask her
company Tor an hours drive behind his
hanosome bays; and she had told her
seif that she would-because she must
refuse henceforth and forever, all things
tnat ne might ask of her; and she
wished to have little time to strengthen
herseil, TO nave her dark hour unseen ~
oelore she should shut the gate forever
between that world of ease and happi-
ness and, more than all else, of Rows
love- and her wsrld of poverty, loneli-
ness and sorrow.
She could not help but love him. he
had lald so many drifts of sunshine
across her otherwise shadowed pathway.
had been such rock Of refuge in her
desert OF triendlessness, since she came.
over year ago, to this dreary little viii I
lage to earn her living by teaching.
ohe had not chosen this vocation. not
because she liked 1t, for she did not. but
because she felt that she was prepared
tor 1t, and there seemed to be no place
Tor her elsewhere in the ranks of work
ers.
She was not fitted to do battle with the
grim hend of poverty she had, until
Two years before, 'fed on the roses. and
lain IN the lilies of life.n Then came
the death of her father, followed almost
Immediately by that of her mother. and
sne was left unprepared to face the world
Her fathers wealth, which she ALWAYS
supposed from their style of living to be
ample, faded away before the demands
OF his creditors like snow in the spring.
time. Her high sense of honor would
not allow her to hold back even the old ,
homestead and household furniture. 50
uear from the associations clustering
around 1t, and reservihg but one or two
ortlcles, she allowed the rest, even her ,
piano, TO be sold.
Her summer friends drifted away one
by one, and she noted their departure /,
with scarcely a sigh over their detection.
Was 1t because she realized of how little
worth was their evanescent friendshipt
'r had her heart, suffering a deeper :
wound, become dead TO the smarung of :
hese lesser hurts?
Harry Vance had been her ideal of 1
gentleman. She had cherished for him
strong friendship, which. before her
ather's death, had hidden fair 10 ripen
nto love; his attentions had been verv ;
oyer-like, and this small world in which u
he two moved had already, in imagiua-
ION, coupled their names together. when !.
ne clouds Of misfortune shrouded her.
nd he, with some trite sentences of con. o
olence upon his tongue, had stepped 4
lmby out of their shadow. probably J,
ongratulating himself that he had not u
one so far but what it was still easy 10 .
ecede
She sighed, not for him, but for her O.
ideal, when she saw that he 81
ought out a shallow, brainless favorite n
fortune, and sought by a vigorous al
to obtain her hand in MARRIAGE Il
1d possession OF the property he knew p'
le held IN her own right, and in that 81
gh eNhaled the last lingering perfume d'
the friendship Ellice GRAY had fell Il
ot Tor Harry Vance, but for the man She cl
al imagined him to be; and in its place HI
rev loathing and contempt for Harry 10
ance, the fortune hunter. intensified an
inbred fold. when, later, she heard of II
Ie debts and duns that harrassed his WI
lthway For, strictly upright aud hon
able herself, she could tolerate no dis ch
'neSty IN Others, and in her vocabulary Ie'
eft and debt without means or inten- sh
on OF payment were synonymous terms. ma
MANY heart is caught in the re. hi
'und proved true In this case, for FL
'e had came TO this little village to lose cla
e heart that had never really been in me
arry's keeping. me
She knew Roy would ask her to be his
-fe, and she had allowed herself TO ish
cam OF how happy she could be with for
m with what a blessed sense of rest brs
d peace she could creep into the shell ne,
; OF his manly arms and Law her head tw
'on his loving breast But now the wi
Iakenlng had come, and the dream was in
er. She had loved him so entirely for
mself, for that great, generous heart of
!, that seemed lar c enough to take in we
mankind as brothers, that she had the